Don Pathman: 2026 Moskol Leadership Award Recipient

The Fredric Moskol 3RNET Leadership Award is presented to a person who possesses outstanding leadership abilities, supports the mission of 3RNET, responds compassionately to the healthcare needs of rural and underserved populations, and does so with a collaborative and compassionate spirit. 3RNET's Board of Directors selects the Moskol Leadership Award recipient. The first Moskol Leadership Award was presented in 2013.

In 2026, 3RNET is proud to recognize Dr. Don Pathman as the Frederic Moskol Leadership Award recipient. 

Dr. Pathman’s career tells a story much like the rural communities he has dedicated his life to serving: grounded in perseverance, shaped by unexpected turns, and driven by a commitment to doing the right thing.
Don’s path to PRISM began long before the program itself. His early interest in research eventually led him to medicine, where he combined both into a career centered on one question: how do we retain clinicians?
Before medical school, Don thought he’d be a bench researcher. He spent three years studying alcohol addiction in rats, even taking a year off to do it full-time. He loved the research, but realized he didn’t want that career. The funding pressure and grant cycle felt like a hamster wheel, pushing him toward medicine.

Later, while working in a rural FQHC, he saw something that would define his career. The way health services were organized—and how clinicians were managed—felt off base. At the same time, he saw how state-level efforts were influencing retention. That’s when it clicked: there are reasons we can’t keep doctors—and those reasons can be studied.

Although he didn’t initially know what Family Medicine Research was, Don was introduced by Ron Thurman to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill (Sheps Center), where he completed three years of fellowship training.

“That experience gave me strong skills in health services research and shaped how I approached rural health challenges going forward—including the relationships and collaborations that eventually led to PRISM,” Don said.

Around 1992, Don recalls nearly moving to Madison, Wisconsin. During that process, he met 3RNET’s founder, Fred Moskol. In true small-town fashion, Don recalls meeting Fred “at a barbecue at John Fry’s backyard.”

At the same time, Don was deeply influenced by Jim Bernstein and the early development of the nation’s first Office of Rural Health in North Carolina. As a graduate student and postdoc, Don regularly presented his research to Bernstein’s office.

“I would always present data to his office… and they would teach me things back about it… it would just always resonate,” Don said.

That two-way exchange—data informing practice, and practice shaping research—became foundational to Don’s approach.

Don has built a reputation for testing assumptions in the field, challenging “common wisdom” and letting data speak for itself. His interactive style often invites audiences to share their perspectives, only to reveal that widely held beliefs about recruitment and retention may be incomplete or incorrect. 

This mindset has carried into his work with PRISM, short for the “Provider Retention and Information System Management”, which is a collaborative of state Primary Care Offices and other state clinician workforce offices in 36 states that Don has been championing since it started as a statewide initiative in North Carolina. PRISM can trace its roots back to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation–funded initiative coordinated through the North Carolina State Office of Rural Health. Tom Tucker (who later served as a 3RNET co-executive director with Tim Skinner) designed Practice Sights as a tracking system for recruitment and retention in North Carolina.

In late 2011, the idea to survey clinicians participating in loan repayment programs was developed by Don and then–Nebraska Primary Care Office Director Tom Rauner. Together with 11 state Primary Care Offices, the Sheps Center, and the Foundation for Health Leadership and Innovation (FHLI), they formed a partnership to better understand clinicians’ experiences. Don has played a central role in guiding PRISM’s development.

States wanted to understand how these obligated service programs were working, what clinicians were experiencing, and how to improve retention where providers were most needed. From this work came the Practice Sights / PRISM questionnaires, including physician satisfaction scales that are still used today.  PRISM currently holds data from more than 97,000 completed questionnaires from over 41,000 clinicians.  Learn more about PRISM here.

From the beginning, Don has encouraged states to use PRISM data to enact real-world change and better support providers. States have also contributed over the years, continuing to strengthen PRISM’s technology in support of that goal.

Like many long-standing initiatives, PRISM has evolved over time. In 2020, the program was rebranded from Practice Sights to PRISM. The following year, it transitioned from FHLI to 3RNET. In 2022, PRISM expanded further, adding a survey for physicians in the Conrad-30 J-1 Visa waiver program. Today, 36 states participate in PRISM. Through the ups and downs, Don has stayed the course.

Since its inception, Don has contributed to the academic research behind provider retention using PRISM data. For him, one of the most important aspects of PRISM is collaboration.

He emphasizes the need for face-to-face connection, shared learning, and strong partnerships across states. Funding remains a challenge, but the program’s strength comes from its collective investment.
What sets PRISM apart is not only the data collected, but the number of organizations and individuals who have contributed to sustaining it. For Don, the project has always been about more than data. It’s about making that data useful.

Don describes his work with PRISM as one of the most natural parts of his career. At its core, it reflects the same principle that shaped his early experiences: research should inform practice, and practice should inform research.

He highlights the importance of translating findings into meaningful insights for states and communities and ensuring that the people closest to the work benefit from the data.

Through PRISM, that principle continues to take shape, thanks to Don. He has been instrumental in helping states take their own data to not just understand clinician retention, but improve it, ensuring rural and underserved communities benefit for years to come. 

We are so proud to name Don as the 2026 Fred Moskol Leadership Award recipient. His work embodies the spirit of the Moskol Leadership Award. Through his commitment to collaboration, his dedication to rural health, and his ability to translate research into meaningful change, he has created a legacy that will support the rural communities—and the clinicians serving in those communities much like Don did—for years to come.